City, town, village, borough or CDP?

The label after a place name is a legal status, not a size ranking.

Incorporated places

Cities, towns, villages and boroughs are incorporated: they have a charter from the state, a government, and the power to tax and pass ordinances. Which word a state uses is a matter of local tradition, not population. A "village" in Illinois can be larger than a "city" in another state, and in New England a "town" is a full municipal government covering a whole area.

Census-designated places (CDPs)

A CDP is a settled community with no municipal government. The Census Bureau draws a boundary around it purely so it can publish statistics. Many CDPs are suburbs or unincorporated communities where residents rely on a county for services. If a place is labelled CDP, expect no mayor, no city hall and no city taxes.

Consolidated and unified governments

Some places merged city and county government — Nashville-Davidson, Indianapolis-Marion, Louisville-Jefferson. The Census publishes both the consolidated entity and the "balance" (the part outside other incorporated places), which is why the same city can appear twice with different population figures.

Why this matters when you look up a place

Two datasets can disagree about a place's name, type or population without either being wrong: one may report the consolidated government, the other the balance, and a CDP may be counted separately from the city it sits beside. Always check the type and the vintage year.